My kids both recently finished their summer band camps. My son plays the trombone and my daughter plays the saxophone and trumpet. As one of the instructors at band camp said, even if you don’t take up a career in music, learning and playing music exercises important parts of your brain that are useful for learning other things. In fact, some have wondered if learning music helps with math skills.

I think the same thing can be said about coding. In fact, there is research that found students with computer programming skills scored higher on cognitive ability tests than students without any programming skills. Coding teaches you skills that are valuable even if you don’t plan on being a professional software developer. Being able to code means utilizing incredible attention to detail and thinking about problems abstractly, useful skills for anyone – student or professional.

Remember, Summertime isn’t just an opportunity for the kids to learn new things. You’ve still got a month of Summer left, plenty of time to expand your own skill set. While the kids are at band camp or swim camp send yourself to programming camp from the comfort of your air-conditioned home.

Can I learn to code in Xojo for free? Yes, Xojo is free for development and testing!

Do you have a free book so I can learn to code? Yes, Intro to Programming with Xojo is free!

Can I ask my beginner questions? Yes, the Xojo forum is a gateway to the friendly and helpful Xojo community.

The Xojo language is Object-Oriented. Object-Oriented programming is an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of computer programming. Xojo is also cross-platform, which means you can build apps for all kinds of platforms using a single code base. Xojo is a Rapid Application Development tool, which means it’s developed to make building apps simple and quick.